Category Archives: UK news

UK warns Hong Kong security law critics of extradition risk posed by China

Posted on by

Activist Bill Browder warns of global reach of controversial law after being contacted by Foreign Office

Britain has warned some Hong Kong critics in the UK about travelling abroad, according to high-profile human rights advocate Bill Browder, highlighting concerns about the cross-border reach of the Chinese region’s national security law.

Browder, a well-known lobbyist for the use of sanctions against foreign governments involved in human rights abuses, said he was contacted by the UK Foreign Office earlier this month after he was named in a Hong Kong court during a foreign collusion case.

Continue reading...

UK plan to end Troubles prosecutions ‘could breach international law’

Posted on by

European human rights commissioner warns Northern Ireland secretary that amnesty is ‘deeply problematic’

Boris Johnson’s plan to impose a statute of limitations to end all prosecutions related to the Troubles before 1998 could be in breach of international law, a European human rights commissioner has told the government.

Dunja Mijatović of the Council of Europe has written to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, saying the UK’s proposals appear indistinguishable from an unconditional amnesty for those not yet convicted.

Continue reading...

England’s Covid travel rules spark outrage around the world

Posted on by

Refusal to recognise vaccines given across Latin America, Africa and south Asia has been denounced as ‘discriminatory’

England’s Covid travel rules and refusal to recognise vaccines administered across huge swaths of the world have sparked outrage and bewilderment across Latin America, Africa and south Asia, with critics denouncing what they called an illogical and discriminatory policy.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, described England’s rules, unveiled last Friday, as “a new simplified system for international travel”. “The purpose is to make it easier for people to travel,” Shapps said.

Continue reading...

Is China stepping up its ambition to supplant US as top superpower?

Posted on by

Analysis: Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger?

It may have been an inelegantly, even ineptly, executed pivot, gratuitously alienating key allies, but by leaving Afghanistan and forming the Australian, US and UK security pact in the Indo-Pacific, Joe Biden has at least cleared the decks to focus on his great foreign policy challenge – the systemic rivalry with China.

Yet the concern now is how quickly this rivalry could escalate, especially in Taiwan. The linchpin of the US alliance system in south-east Asia, Taiwan is the biggest island in the “first island chain”, the group of islands that keeps China blocked in. It is China’s next target, and as the former British prime minister Theresa May pointed out, no one quite knows if the west is prepared to fight to save Taiwan or whether the new tripartite pact in some way places a new obligation on the UK to come to the country’s defence.

Continue reading...

‘Donnez-moi un break’: Johnson says France needs to ‘get a grip’ over submarine deal – video

Posted on by

Boris Johnson has said French officials need to 'prenez un grip' amid continued anger at the US and UK's recent submarine deal with Australia. France recalled its ambassadors from both countries in response to Sunday's announcement. On Wednesday the prime minister said: 'It is not exclusive. It is not trying to shoulder anybody out. It is not adversarial towards China, for instance. It is there to intensify links and friendship between three countries'

Continue reading...

Brexit caused huge drop in Great Britain to Ireland exports in 2021

Posted on by

Irish government figures come days after M&S says it is scrapping 800 lines due to ‘excessive paperwork’

Exports from Great Britain to Ireland fell by almost £2.5bn in the first seven months of the year with Brexit emerging as a major factor, according to official Irish government data.

The figures from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) come just days after Marks & Spencer said it was scrapping 800 product lines from its stores in the republic of Ireland because of “excessive paperwork” and health controls on food.

Continue reading...

Man charged with murder of woman and three children in Killamarsh

Posted on by

Damien Bendall, 31, appears in court on four counts of murder after bodies found at house in Derbyshire

A 31-year-old man has been remanded in custody charged with four counts of murder after a woman and three children were found dead in a house in Derbyshire.

The bodies of John Paul Bennett, 13, Lacey Bennett, 11, their mother, Terri Harris, 35, and Lacey’s friend, Connie Gent, 11, were discovered at a property in Killamarsh, near Sheffield, on Sunday morning.

Continue reading...

Brazilian minister tests positive for Covid after meeting maskless Johnson

Posted on by

Marcelo Queiroga sat close to Boris Johnson and Liz Truss at New York meeting

Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, has tested positive for Covid and gone into isolation, 24 hours after meeting a maskless Boris Johnson and other British officials in New York.

Queiroga, who sat close to Johnson and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday during their meeting with Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced his positive test on Twitter on Tuesday night.

Continue reading...

UK to send 1m Pfizer vaccine doses to South Korea in swap deal

Posted on by

Doses will help South Korea boost full vaccination rates, and UK will get same number back later in year

One million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine are being sent from the UK to South Korea as part of a swap deal.

South Korea will return the same “overall volume of doses” before the end of the year, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden warns UK not to damage Northern Ireland peace over Brexit – video

Posted on by

 Joe Biden has underlined the importance of ensuring peace in Northern Ireland is not jeopardised by post-Brexit tensions. Asked about a UK-US trade deal, the US president told reporters in Washington on Tuesday: 'There are two separate issues: on the deal with the UK, that continues to be discussed, but on the protocols, I feel very strongly about those. It was a major bipartisan effort made, and I would not at all like to see – nor, I might add, would many of my Republican colleagues – like to see a change in the Irish accords, and the end result having a closed border again'

Continue reading...

US-UK ‘special relationship’ faces new challenges despite signs of healing

Posted on by

Relationship between Biden’s US and Johnson’s post-Brexit UK remains complicated and inevitably transactional

What a difference a month makes.

In August Joe Biden was being denounced in the British parliament for a “shameful” retreat from Afghanistan that blindsided the UK and other allies. The US president reportedly took a day and a half to return prime minister Boris Johnson’s call.

Continue reading...

Harry Dunn family reach deal in US civil claim against Anne Sacoolas

Posted on by

Spokesperson says agreement in damages case is a milestone in family’s fight for justice

The family of Harry Dunn have reached a “resolution” with the teenager’s alleged killer, Anne Sacoolas, in their civil claim for damages in the US.

Radd Seiger, the spokesperson for the Dunn family, said the agreement was “a real milestone” in the family’s fight for justice and they could now “put this part of the campaign behind them”.

Continue reading...

Holiday homes for disabled people face closure due to England’s vaccines mandate

Posted on by

Charity says Covid policy is having ‘devastating consequences’ for sector already in crisis

Some of England’s only holiday homes for disabled people in care are facing closure due to the policy that means all staff must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

The charity, Revitalise, said England’s vaccines mandate for care homes was having “devastating consequences” for a sector already in crisis.

Continue reading...

Third Russian national charged over Salisbury poisonings

Posted on by

Man using the name Sergey Fedotov alleged to have been working with Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov

A third Russian national has been charged over the 2018 novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, British police have said.

A man using the name Sergey Fedotov, believed to be about 50 years old, is alleged to have been working as part of a Russian military unit with Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who have previously been charged over the poisonings in Wiltshire.

Continue reading...

Top Thai union leader ‘targeted’ with jail for rail safety campaign

Posted on by

Case is ‘major blow’ in country with weak workers’ rights and puts trade deals in question, says Human Rights Watch

One of Thailand’s most prominent union leaders is facing three years in prison for his role in organising a railway safety campaign, in a case described as the biggest attack on organised labour in the country in decades.

Rights advocates say the case involving Sawit Kaewvarn, president of the State Railway Union of Thailand, will have a chilling effect on unions and threatens to further weaken workers’ rights in the country.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson welcomes decision to open UK-US travel ‘in time for Thanksgiving’ – video

Posted on by

Boris Johnson has welcomed the US decision to lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most EU countries to travel into the country from early November. The move signals the end of a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump more than 18 months ago in the early stages of the pandemic, and comes after intense lobbying from Brussels and London

Continue reading...

US to lift Covid travel ban for vaccinated passengers from UK and most of EU

Posted on by

US will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions starting in November, which will also affect travellers from China, Brazil, South Africa and India

The US will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most European Union (EU) countries to travel into the country from early November, the White House has announced.

Related: Airline shares soar on US plans to relax Covid travel rules

Continue reading...

Examining Aukus alliance through the lens of history | Letters

Posted on by

Readers respond to the new pact between the UK, Australia and the US, and its implications

The Aukus pact is not a “new global order” (17 September) but very much an old order; it is colonial gunboats. I do not expect politicians to have read history such as the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839, but I do expect them to be aware of history in their own lifetimes. Eton may not teach the failures of empire, but China has been very clear about Taiwan since 1950.

When Biden said, “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries”, he was committing to another battle in the Pacific. The global dominance of China has been clear for more than 20 years, and yet we are unwillingly signed up to face this new empire?
Simon Allen
St Albans, Hertfordshire

Continue reading...